Category: friends

Gingerbread houses

December 6, 2009

Our friend Nancy H. invited us over to make gingerbread houses, to which we happily agreed. Tom’s aunt had kindly given the kids a gingerbread house kit, which was wrapped and in a corner of our bedroom, waiting to be opend in December. Somehow the dogs smelled it all the way through the box, and managed to eat a good amount of it before we discovered them.

Needless to say, we were excited for a second chance.

Little did we know, Nancy had made all of the gingerbread parts by hand, and had pre-assembled all the houses for ease of decorating for little people. We walked in the door, and there sat the gorgeous houses, ready for decorating.

After some playtime, the kids settled in to work on their houses. They had such a ball. Big thanks to Nancy and crew for such a fabulous afternoon.
Launched

November 23, 2009

We’ve been meaning to do a blog for Wire & Twine for ages. We finally put it on the calendar and made it happen. We’ll do a little about Wire & Twine and a lot about a bunch of other stuff. Because, you know, you needed more ways to spend time on the internet!

See the beginnings here. Look for it to grow in the months to come…
Hot air balloons

November 21, 2009

Tom left for the weekend to go see the Pixies with Chris. In a few years, when the kids are older, I'll tag along on these events. I would have loved to see Kim, Kelley, Amy, and Kevin. When the kids get older, we’ll have a bit more freedom.

The kids were going to be stuck at home a good deal of the weekend while I completed some photo sessions, so I figured I should spring them out for a bit. Off to a hot air balloon show in the Big City with Nancy and Mary Beth in tow.

It was pretty spectacular. The kids would agree, but they would point out that climbing on that huge crumbling rock structure was way more fun.

(Photo of me by Ellery.)
Halloween

October 31, 2009
To the Big City

October 30, 2009

It’s been a miserable week.

While everyone is finally healthy, work has crashed down on me. I have been at war with a printer. Not the small, desktop kind, but the big professional corporate kind.

I don’t even want to go into it, but it involves a whole of me screaming and yelling at people over the phone. And they’re people who don’t really deserve to be yelled at, but they are my representatives to The Organization. Young children, who were likely in diapers when I learned to use Photoshop. Yet, they’re attempting to school me in it.

And somewhere in between there was me doing a really crappy job at everything else in my life, including motherhood, Halloween preparation, parades, and field trips.

I came out of the week knowing that I ache for people whose lives are that stressful all the time, and I understand why they keel over prematurely from a massive heart attack. I can’t take that kind of stress on a daily basis.

I also know that I need more of the good stuff. Much more.

Friday was one of our last glorious days, and I was facing it solo. So I made plans to pick up Neko from school and head to the Big City. Mary Beth and her mom, Nancy, jumped in as an unexpected bonus. We traveled down to the purple bridge. Hiked across. Played. Laughed. Hiked back. We tried to get a table at the pizza place, but the wait was too long. So we took our order to go, and ate outside, listening to a live musician.

Not much pizza was eaten. Neko and Mary Beth ran and swung around in a way I remember so clearly from my youth. The decibels were a little much for Shep, who planted himself firmly in my lap. But Ellery? She danced her can off, the whole night, without a break for pizza.

In the future? Less yelling at 24-year-old printing reps. More of this kind of goodness.
I do exist!

October 26, 2009

My friend Nancy H. took these photos when we whizzed by her house to pick up Neko after school. Their rope swing and a big pile of leaves were too much for the kids to resist, so we got out of the car for a short visit.

Nancy had her camera on hand, and took a few photos that included me…a rarity around here. It’s something I should do more often, and I should probably aim to get a few someday that actually include children that are my own.

On a completely unrelated note, the second photo shows that I am *this close* to having my dental implants completed. The last part of the post has been put in place, and all I have left is for the dentist to give me some new teeth. Yippee!
Farm Day 7

October 10, 2009

One of these years, I really am going to take the time run around and take photos. Really. I am. But in the meantime, I give you three of the four photos I took this year.

Despite the lack of photos, I declare another Farm Day success. I’m always amazed that so many friends and family take the time to come join us for a day on the farm. It always looks like a big mess of crazy from my perspective, but I assume people are having fun, or they wouldn’t come back, right?

For those of you who might want to revisit the crazy next year, mark your calendars! Farm Day 8 will be on October 9, 2010.
We have fairies in the back yard

August 17, 2009
Pool and hot tub

July 28, 2009

Hands down, the best feature of the house.
Reunion, indeed!

July 26, 2009

On Friday afternoon, right before I left to pick up Shep from camp, the phone rang.

It was my high school friend Jessica, whom I haven’t seen in person since our twenties, although we’ve communicated via email and Facebook. When talk of our class reunion started to surface, I told her she was welcome to come stay at our place, but it sounded like she wasn’t going to make it.

Until Friday afternoon, when I picked up the phone, and Jessica said, “I think I want to come to the reunion.” Which would be a perfectly normal phone call if the reunion weren’t happening the following night and she didn’t live thousands of miles away.

I gave her my two cents worth (COME!) and offered up our basement as lodging. An hour later she called back and said the whole family was boarding a plane in a matter of hours. I’m such a planner that I adore when others are completely spontaneous. Hooray!

In between the call and their arrival, I hosted another high school friend, Emily, and her family for dinner. Emily has not changed ONE BIT, and I mean that in the best possible way. Tom and I hung out with them for most of the reunion events—it was so good to have such fine company.

At midnight, our house guests arrived. Jessica is exactly the same, and I remembered why we spent all that time hanging out back in the day. Odie and Tom immediately fell into talking about tools and workshops, and they even moved all the wood from the freshly chopped down trees the next day. Their kids, Neely and Beck jumped right in with our kids and never looked back. (Have you seen those babies? SCRUMPTIOUS.)

The reunion itself was precisely what I expected it to be. Most people were doing great and seemed genuinely excited to be back in the company of those with whom they’d spent many years. Tom, Odie, Emily’s husband Mike, and another friend’s wife attempted to sneak into the Class of ’89 photo, but got kicked out. We later staged their own photo (above).

By far the best part of the weekend was reconnecting with those few close friends. I adore that we were able to pick up right where we left off, and our children and partners just jumped in and followed suit. I lobbied hard for some folks to come live in our back yard, but so far no one seems to be biting. In the meantime, I need to figure out how to fold the continent in half and make visits more doable.